Fort Ancient and My List Continued

Today we took some time to talk about Fort Ancient.  Fort Ancient is amazing and just a few minutes away from our school.  It is incredible to think about this important part of history just being down the road from our school.  I hoped by showing some videos that I could get the students to understand that this incredible piece of history is right in their backyard.  If you follow this link, you will be able to find some of the videos that we watched today in class.

We also wrapped up the second chapter in Poetry Matters that deals with creating image poems.

I loved the ideas that Ralph Fletcher shared with the class about creating these images.  Tomorrow we will make a poster that summarizes his ideas:

1. Write and notice the world using your five senses
2. Use similes and metaphors
3. Use personification
4. Use Symbols

Today in class we talked about symbols in poetry.  Fletcher mentions Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken.  I made sure that was the poem that I shared with the class.  When we were done we watched Kid President's Pep Talk.  If you have not seen this video, it is sure to make you smile.  The best part of the video to me is the lines about Frost's poem.

Well back to my top five moment of 2013 in room 215.

3.  Charlotte's Web  This seems like ages ago now.  When it was time to read Charlotte's Web, my room became a buzz of activity.  Some students would gather around the iTouch to listen to the chapters of the day.  Other students would meet with their partners to read the chapters.  The room was just a buzz of noise and the students were reading and talking about this incredible piece of literature.  I am big on trying to read the newest book or listen to the newest music, and I think this is why I loved our Charlotte's Web time.  Taking a moment and going back to revisit a special text was one of my favorite memories of the year.

2.  GoldieBloxs Claim  We have been building and building all year long on this idea of making and supporting a claim.  During the first week of school we watched a commercial from Volkswagon about the Fun Theory.  The class talked and discussed what Volkswagon was claiming in the commercial.  But later in the year I found my favorite commercial of the year.  

This commercial has changed since we first used it in class.  The commercial had taken lyrics from a famous song and made them work perfectly with their claim.  Unfortunately the lyrics have been removed in this version because of copyright issues.  

I was amazed to see how quickly the class understood what this commercial was trying to claim.  Then I had the students write about whether or not they agreed with the claim of the commercial.  The writing the class gave me was so much fun to read.  I cannot wait to work more on making and writing claims in 2014.

Tomorrow my favorite memory of the year.  

Hope you are all having an amazing week.